“What Lies Beneath” – Connect>Create Exhibition Hull Ferens – 14 April — 30 May 2011 – ON NOW!

The Connect>Create exhibition has for a number of years used Hull Museums and the Ferens Art Gallery collections as an inspirational starting point for generating student work in 16+ Art & Design education.

Its objectives:

•    To engage with a new audience of post 16 students
•    To develop and sustain partnerships with post 16 education providers
•    To increase access to collections for young people
•    To provide relevant live project opportunities for young people using museums
•    To create sustainable learning resources for post 16 users of Hull Museums

…and of course to provide a great opportunity to engage with parts of the Museum and Gallery collections they may not have seen while gaining access to the work of local students in their community.

Lecturers from several FE colleges including Park Street’s School of Art & Design and HE establishments including HSAD worked with the Museum Service to develop various assignment briefs in response to the identified collections (this year the Archeaology collection at the Hull & East Riding Museum and the 20^th Century Portraits from the Ferens) and this years general inspirational themes of “CSI” (Culture Scene Investigation) and “ID” (Identification) which are linked to course modules to form part of the students’ ongoing college work.

The outcomes are then submitted and enter into a selection process to see which will be put forward for exhibition at the prestigious Ferens Art Gallery and used as case studies in learning resources for future educational visitors.

From Fashion, to large scale Photography, experiments with light, sculpure, Interactives and alternative heritage based uses for Games Design technology, this years exhibition should be something you make time to see…

Visitors enjoy a glass of wine and discuss the work on show at the Private View, 14/04/2011.

New Media Student, Phil Shakesby’s Touchscreen Interactive, designed to explain some of the ideas behind Portraiture as well as engaging visitors to become part of a larger digital portrait project, shares gallery space with Peter Howson’s Mr Great Heart (background left), one of Yorkshires Favourite Paintings.

Year 2, Games Design BA students produced this speculative “time travel” interpretation of the journey of the Grimston Sword (Hull & East Riding museum, Celtic Exhibit) using a games design engine software to see it move through time from its creation in a Celtic Forge, via a Victorian antiquities collector’s study (a nod to the likes of J.R. Mortimer) and on to the “stacks” of the museum before its eventual exhibition (an innovative technology exhibit which again proved popular with visitors, much like last years recreation of the Hull Docks as they appeared in 1900) – the full video can be found here:

Amongst other mediums, large works in Ceramic and Glass feature.

Rob Moore, Dean of the Hull School of Art & Design, while praising the students work and the unique quality of such a collaboration between Museums and Education also spoke to a large turnout of visitors of his regret at the possible lack of such a project in the following years; but did go on to mention next years Precious Cargo Exhibition – (see link further down post).

Visitors inverstigating the wealth of works by students in a wide variety of media as well as some of the items from the collections that inspired them.

Design for the Public Realm Student, Jak De Groot’s centrepiece, a skull covered with roses made from fine wire drew a lot of attention!

Sculpture, painting, technology and fashion and textile work such as the piece above are exhibited side by side showing the diversity of student work on show.

Whereas Oliver Brown’s detailed sculpture referenced the fossils from the Archaeology collection while discussing how our contemporary culture might be preserved into a far-flung the future.

Students from HSAD line up for a photo opportunity towards the end of a busy and exciting private view, L>R: James Carter (Games Design BA), Danny Panzid-Foster, Jade Whelpton, Emily Longhorn (who designed and helped curate the exhibition), Gary Morgan, Jac De Groot, Majeda Begum, Chris Rust and Oliver Brown (all from the Design for Public Realm FD).

Other creations on show include short films, painted portraits, photographs and pieces of writing, all of which have been produced by art and design students from colleges across the region through the Connect>Create project.

Get yourself down there and take a look…

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Hull City Council Museums Education Officer Adele Howitt said: “Connect>Create is an annual project which invites students to create works based on the vast and wonderful collections found in Hull Museums.

“Items dating from the Neolithic to the Roman to modern times have provided a vast source of inspiration to students and their personal reflections have led to some marvellous reinterpretations of objects.”

Following the exhibition, some of the students’ creations, including the Grimstone Sword “time travel” interpretation, will be kept on at the museums to help engage visitors.

Head of School, Art & Design, Hull College Isabel Willock said: “We’re very grateful to Hull City Council museum staff for initiating this project which has given students a flavour of real working practices and deadlines.

“Having the chance to exhibit in a public space and recognition for the very real talent in the school is the cherry on the cake.”

Next year will see students participating and exhibiting as part of a different project connected to the UK Cultural Olympiad, “Precious Cargo”, which is the Yorkshire region’s contribution to Stories of the World.

http://www.london2012.com/get-involved/cultural-olympiad/museums-and-galleries/stories-of-the-world/index.php

The project will explore how the objects in Yorkshire’s museums, ideas and customs have found their way across the world and become ‘precious’ items of heritage in the process. York and Scarborough Museums Trust are core partners for the project and a number of North Yorkshire museums including the Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, Shandy Hall, Coxwold and Whitby Museum are also involved.

Beyond that, valuable projects such as this await alternative funding or face no future at all.

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The “What Lies Beneath” Connect/Create Exhibition 2011 is:

Suitable for – Any age

Located at – Gallery 4, Ferens Art Gallery, Victoria Square, Hull. HU1 3R.

Admission – Free entry. Gallery Open 10am – 5pm Monday – Saturday, 1.30-4.30pm Sundays.

…for further information contact: Hull City Council Museums Education Officer, Adele Howitt

email – adele.howitt@hullcc.gov.uk or tel: 01482 318963

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*Arts Funding cut to the tune of £120 million – http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/apr/03/arts-funding-cuts-debate , money which in the scheme of things is not a big saving but means a lot to those who waded through paperwork mire and the rigmarole of applying for it each year for their sometimes small and hyper-local events and projects, while our Coalition Gov’t spends more than its equivalent, £200 million, on marketing & PR in just 5 months –  http://tinyurl.com/66x8bjo .

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Oh, and last and by all means least, yours truly tweeting the images out live from the event as it happened on 14/04/2011, photo courtesy of Jade Whelpton.

~ by hesir on April 26, 2011.